Improving Safety & Quality Matters, but...

http://www.leanblog.org/audio176 I saw this article a few days ago in one of the larger healthcare industry trade publications:How One Woman Saved IU Health $54 Million The headline is misleading, as addressed in the opening sentence / sub-headline of the story (via HealthLeaders): "With a little help from about 10,000 of her friends and colleagues, the head of Indiana University Health's office of transformation leanedin to cut waste and encourage value, one project at a time." That's more like it and more likely... Lean is a team effort that, ideally, engages everybody... so it's not surprising to hear about 10,000 participants and the need to share that credit. Like almost every health system, IU Health faced financial pressures. I'll give their board credit for pushing for a method other than traditional layoff-based "cost cutting." "IU Health had already tried some performance improvement projects, but they were scattershot and not based on a unified philosophy. In order to improve results and scalethe improvement process, the board challenged then-CEO Dan Evans to deploy a system-wide value-improvement tool that could enlist all employees."